Daniel Pipes: My Peace Plan? Victory

Daniel Pipes tells the Canadian National Post that in order to achieve peace, Israel must first achieve victory.

By Maayana Miskin

First Publish: 5/9/2010, 6:06 PM / Last Update: 5/9/2010, 6:20 PM

danielpipes.org

As Israel and the Palestinian Authority resume mediated talks, Middle East Forum Director Daniel Pipes says the path to peace is simple: Israel must fight the PA and win.

In response to Canada's National Post, Pipes explained that Israel and the Arab world can make peace, but only through victory. “Wars end, the historical record confirms, when one side concedes defeat and the other side wins,” he writes.

A fake peace, in which both sides secretly maintain hope of a full victory, is unlikely to last, Pipes warns. “As long as both sides aspire to achieve their ambitions, fighting continues or it potentially can resume,” he says. According to Pipes, this can be seen from various historical examples, including post-World War I Germany, which retained its goal of conquering Europe, and the case of northern Vietnam, which conquered southern Vietnam two years after the Vietnam War had officially ended.

What was true throughout history remains true today, Pipes says, because “however much weaponry changes, human nature remains the same.”

Victory does not necessarily need to be won through violence or death, Pipes writes. Victory is achieved when one side loses hope of achieving its aims, he says, which can take place without an all-out battle, as happened when the Soviet Union abandoned the Cold War.

Israel and the Arab world have so far maintained their goals, Pipes continues. “Israel fights to win acceptance by its enemies, while those enemies fight to eliminate Israel. These goals are raw, unchanging, and mutually contradictory.”

Breaking PA Arabs' will to destroy Israel would lead to acceptance throughout the Arab and Muslim world, Pipes believes. In addition, he says, doing so would benefit PA Arabs themselves.

"Ironically, an Israeli victory would bring yet greater benefits to the Palestinians than to Israel... For Palestinians... abandoning the fetid irredentist dream of eliminating their neighbor would finally offer them a chance to tend their own misbegotten garden, to develop their deeply deficient polity, economy, society and culture,” Pipes concludes.